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Stand with Rand Paul Against Domestic Drone Strikes

Senator Rand Paul showed a great amount of courage when he filibustered John Brennan’s appointment for CIA director on the Senate floor yesterday, following the Obama administration’s refusal to answer whether or not it is constitutional for the government to kill U.S. citizens on U.S. soil with drones. The answer should be simple: no. It is a blatant violation of the Constitution and it stands against everything this country was founded on for the government to kill any citizen without a trial or due process.

This all began when Senator Paul repeatedly requested additional information from Attorney General Eric Holder concerning whether “the President has the power to authorize lethal force, such as a drone strike, against a U.S. citizen on U.S. soil, and without trial.”

As expected, Eric Holder tap danced around the question in a letter to Senator Paul. He concluded that the government does have the right to kill U.S. citizens on U.S soil, but it is unlikely to occur. Isn't that reassuring? The government could kill you if they wanted to, but it probably won’t happen.

How did we get to this point?There is a serious debate going on in America on whether the government can pretty much just murder us at will, if they just suspect we are doing something wrong. Just let that sink in.

Shhhhh. Can you hear that? That’s the sound of the Founding Fathers rolling in their graves.

As Senator Paul mentioned on the Senate floor, the U.S. government killed 16-year-old U.S. citizen Abdulrahman al-Awlaki during a drone strike at an outdoor restaurant in Yemen with no due process. Abdulrahman al-Awlaki had a U.S. birth certificate and was born in Denver, Colorado in 1995. President Obama has never answered any questions concerning this drone strike that killed an American citizen.

Senator Paul started speaking just before noon on Wednesday. His opening statement showed extreme bravery and determination:

I will speak until I can no longer speak. I will speak as long as it takes, until the alarm is sounded from coast to coast that our Constitution is important, that your rights to trial by jury are precious, that no American should be killed by a drone on American soil without first being charged with a crime, without first being found to be guilty by a court.

He stood alone on the Senate floor for about 3 hours. Finally, he was joined by a handful of courageous Senators: Sens. Mike Lee, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Pat Toomey, Saxby Chambliss, Ron Wyden, John Cornyn, Tim Scott, John Thune, John Barrasso, Mitch McConnell, Jeff Flake, Ron Johnson, and Jerry Moran. All of these senators deserve recognition for standing up for our constitutional rights, especially Democratic Senator Wyden who openly criticized Obama’s executive overreach on the Senate floor.

Senator Wyden proved that this isn’t a Republican vs. Democrat issue. It’s a freedom vs. tyranny issue. Believe it or not, Code Pink: Women for Peace and Demand Progress tweeted out a series of #StandWithRand tweets. It’s great to see self-described “left-wing” groups stand tall on civil liberties in the era of Obama.

Many left-wing groups and notable individuals rightfully criticized former President George W. Bush’s civil liberties abuses. But most of them have fallen silent on civil liberty issues, even though Obama has been much worse than George W. Bush in this regard. Obama signed the Patriot Act extension that allows the government to spy on citizens without warrants, he signed NDAA which allows for the indefinite detention of U.S. citizens without trial, and now his administration refuses to answer a question on whether the government can kill citizens with drones.

Rand Paul said it perfectly: “where is the Barack Obama of 2007?… Barack Obama of 2007 would be right down here with me arguing against this drone-strike program.”

Senator Obama would surely be disappointed by President Obama’s horrible civil liberties record.

Rand Paul stood on the Senate floor for almost 13 hours yesterday. Good for him. He made the #Constitution trend on Twitter nationwide yesterday.

Washington, D.C. – FreedomWorks activists call on their senators to end mass surveillance and support Sen. Rand Paul’s filibuster. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has called for a clean reauthorization of expiring sections of the PATRIOT Act, to include Section 215 which allows for bulk data collection.

Today, the House will likely pass their bill, the USA FREEDOM Act, to reform and reauthorize the controversial Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act. This portion of the 2001 law was revealed by Edward Snowden to be the legal justification for the massive, nearly limitless collection of American citizens’ telephone metadata by the NSA. Unfortunately, this year's USA Freedom Act as currently conceived is weaker than previous versions.

In an era of judicial activism and a lot of nonsense talk about “a living document,” it’s refreshing to see that there are still some Courts interested in upholding the Constitution and defending the freedoms outlined in the Bill of Rights.

As one of our more than 6.9 million FreedomWorks members nationwide, I urge you to contact the members of the House Judiciary Committee today and ask them to support the Poe-Lofgren Amendment to the USA FREEDOM Act to limit NSA spying.

Set to expire at the end of May, Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act is only one of a number of authorities the government uses to defy the 4th Amendment and spy on millions of Americans without a direct warrant. Nevertheless, its upcoming sunset date provides defenders of liberty a strong chance to make serious move back towards our founders’ intention that:

Jeb Bush continues to defend the National Security Agency's unconstitutional domestic spying program, telling a conservative talk show host that this gross encroachment on the Fourth Amendment is the "best part of the Obama administration."

You’ve seen it a thousand times in movies, on police dramas, in any media dealing with crime and punishment. The police show up at a suspect’s house demanding entry, only to have the occupant retort, “Come back when you’ve got a warrant.”

Congress is preparing to reauthorize the PATRIOT Act within the next couple of weeks, a wide reaching law that was hastily crafted without much regard for the long-term implications. In the last few years, however, we've seen how certain sections of the law allow the government to spy on innocent citizens without warrants, violating their rights to due process guaranteed under the Constitution.